2008 September | Digital Pivot

A recent article in MarketingVox highlights an August/September 2008 Insight Report from MarketTools states that 68% of online Americans visit social media sites and the trend is on the rise. The report provides several interesting stats on usage for online tools as well as the importance of user generated content to research and purchase decisions. This news isn’t new or surprising for that matter but adds weight to the need for marketing departments to make sure they have a social media component to their communications plans.

Goofy Joins the Geek Squad

I’m not sure why Disney would produce a spot for home theater installation other than to poke fun at the complexity and hype surrounding the home entertainment experience. This is a funny short put together in the vein of old skin Disney cartoons from the 40’s. As digital is at the heart of all great toys…don’t forget the universal remote.

Compliments of Gizmodo

Music and the 2.0 Movement

Oasis is launching their new single and CD with the help of street musicians in NYC. Using an interesting twist on Web 2.0, they have taught street musicians in NY their new song and are recording the process documentary style for use on YouTube and Flickr. The musicians will then perform throughout the city to promote the album. It’s an interesting experiment that follows in the steps of Radiohead and Trent Reznor with the pay what you want record releases.

The digital tools available to musicians today create unique opportunities for them to reach out to fans and share their music in a new way…as long as…

iPhone Growing in Corporate Market

IBM announced availability for it’s Lotus Notes Ultralite application for the iPhone today. The new App will allow Notes users to access their info via a Safari web browser experience. It’s not a direct integration to the calendar and e-mail like the Microsoft Exchange process but it is a solution nonetheless.

As an iPhone user in a Notes organization, I’m giddy to say the least. No more manual calendar matching with mobileme. This is another win for Apple as they focus on growing the share of the “corporate” market with these types of applications. It continues to open markets for them where users may have…

Presidential Interactive Marketing?

I am impressed with both presidential candidates use of interactive marketing. I’ve been gathering information to place my vote in the upcoming election and I’ve seem numerous improvements in the marketing tactics since the previous election. I have noticed an increase in email communications, videos, blogging, and webcasts. It will be interesting to see how these marketing tactics affect the young voter turnout and how effective the candidate’s message was within their campaign strategy. I guess the world of interactive marketing is progressing, if old men and women in Washington are using it!

Interactive Employment

We are in a digital world of marketing and advertising numerous products and services to a diversified audience. Unfortunately, I have begun to support the idea that marketing firms and advertising agencies are not employing talent from these diversified audiences. It’s not like we cannot find the talent in major metro areas such as Philadelphia, Washington D.C., or Chicago. There are a number of diverse applications with the necessary skills to be successful in interactive marketing, so why is there such an issue employing these candidates?

Presidential Debate Internet Use Tangential

If it proceeds, Friday’s presidential debate can be “twittered” on cell phone, watched via live streaming video that can be rewound, or just glimpsed via searchable clips online. At first glance, it all seems a techie’s dream. Not quite. Bloggers and “new media” advocates for a more Internet-friendly presidential debate are hardly pleased. The Internet crowd sees Friday’s format as a step backward from innovations seen during the primaries. Gone are real-time “feedback loops” from Internet users that shaped debate questions in real time. Also gone are unfiltered questions, screened for topic but not content.

Lying’s New Dimension (1 of 3)

Despite all the chatter about how “historic” Campaign 2008 has been, it is the McCain-Palin ticket that it is truly testing the limits, not of race or gender politics, but whether the United States is ready to enter a new dimension of political lying. — Robert Parry, Consortium News

Not to state the obvious, but with my background being the news business, I leave marketing observations to the many tenured marketing minds at this and sister Talent Zoo web logs. Until now – because political ads are a subject with which I’ve a long history. As a reporter, you’re always at odds with…

The Enemy Is … Us! (2 of 3)

I hitched my journalistic future to digital new media thinking it the greatest information tool ever seen. In the midst of the ongoing U.S. presidential election, I’m starting to also see it as the greatest enemy to information. This is why I’m remembering the famous Pogo line, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Economist and columnist Paul Krugman correctly noted that John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s “Blizzard of Lies” are “assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute.” In Palin’s interviews on CBS’ and ABC’s nightly newscasts, the little-known governor of Alaska not at all surprisingly…

‘Blizzard of Lies’ Last Thought (3 of 3)

For those amazed at the impunity of John McCain’s presidential campaign to launch a “blizzard of lies” in its TV and Internet commercials, be aware the U.S. Supreme Court has entitled commercial speech to limited 1st Amendment protection. As my media marketing colleagues well know, “false or misleading” advertising may be restricted. “Political speech” usually cannot be banned no matter how false or misleading. If political speech is false or misleading and also defamatory, the standard remedy for someone injured is to sue.

The non-standard remedy is the free press the Founding Father’s established. In the case of McCain’s too-clever-by-half “blizzard,”…

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